


Three Times Peter Picked Tony Up

by thesoundofnat



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 3+1, Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Iron Dad, Light Angst, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 02:51:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15854733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesoundofnat/pseuds/thesoundofnat
Summary: He blinked, craning his head and meeting Peter’s wide eyes. Confused. “What the hell.”It was the sound of the others cheering that made him realize that Peter was holding him. Quite literally holding him in his arms bridal style. Tony might’ve been embarrassed had he not been so astounded.





	Three Times Peter Picked Tony Up

**Author's Note:**

> I saw some amazing fanart of Peter lifting Tony (though I unfortunately cannot locate it right now), and knew I needed to turn that concept into a fic. I hope you like it!

**1.**

The first time it happened Peter apologized over and over, claiming he’d merely done it on instinct because he was used to quite literally lifting people out of danger as Spider-Man.

But he hadn’t been Spider-Man in that moment, only a kid from Queens with a stupid science pun on his t-shirt that had somehow found himself in Tony Stark’s kitchen, surrounded by the other Avengers and a whole lot of food. No wonder he’d been overwhelmed.

No wonder Tony had been distracted.

That day’s battle had fortunately been quick and easy, but Tony was still a little bit pissed at Peter for having shown up out of nowhere. Yes, they had been very close to his location, but that didn’t automatically mean he needed to join them when they clearly had it all under control. His presence had only kept Tony on edge, though he wasn’t cruel enough to say that.

As per tradition, the team ordered in more food than they probably needed, which quite honestly felt a little exaggerated that day since all they’d done was lift one or two fingers, but they were still searching for a sense of unity after having reunited only a few months prior. Tony wasn’t about to bring any sort of hostility into the room with a comment, so he shut his mouth. Tried to ignore the small part of him that was still hurt, after everything.

Peter seemed to not know how to act, jumping from merely observing to talking ten miles an hour with whomever was closest to him. Tony almost felt a little bad for him. He still wasn’t used to being around so many of them at once, and it was clear that he was trying to act older than he was.

“How’s Ned?” Tony asked, his attempt at saving the kid from whatever the hell he’d been about to say to Natasha.

Peter met his gaze, eyes bright. “Oh! He’s good. He’ll freak out when I tell him you asked.”

Tony snorted. “He’ll never get used to this, will he?”

“Well, I’m not sure  _I’ll_ get used to it either.”

Tony rested his elbows on the table, leaning closer. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, kiddo. None of us have.”

“We just act like we do,” Nat said, and Tony was grateful that she treated Peter as an equal. In fact, whatever he might be feeling towards the others, they were all nice to the kid, and Tony kept wanting to buy them a fruit basket or something because of it.

“Can someone grab the salt?” came the sudden request from Clint, and it all was a bit of a blur after that.

Tony, being at the far end of the table and therefore closest to the counter, got up with only a slight sigh. Apparently Peter, who was sitting across from him, had the same idea, ever so eager to please. If this had been a movie the scene would happen in slow motion, focusing on how Peter was just too slow to get out of Tony’s way when they both rose, the two of them going right and thus colliding. Peter, realizing Tony was quicker, made a move to step aside, which resulted in their feet tangling together somehow, and Tony felt himself flying only a second later.

And then, nothing. No fall. No twisted ankles or shattered elbows on the polished floor. Only the feeling of going upward rather than down. And then, stop.

He blinked, craning his head and meeting Peter’s wide eyes. Confused. “What the hell.”

It was the sound of the others cheering that made him realize that Peter was holding him. Quite literally holding him in his arms bridal style. Tony might’ve been embarrassed had he not been so astounded.

“I’m sorry!” Peter cried, setting him down easily.

Tony swayed as he regained control of his body, standing firmly on the ground again like he usually did when he wasn’t in his suit. “What-” he tried again, but Peter started rambling.

“I felt my foot hook onto yours and saw you start falling and grabbed you automatically like I would as Spider-Man, I’m sorry, Mr Stark, I didn’t mean to offend you, please don’t believe that I for one second would ever dream of-”

“Hey, hey. Breathe, Pete, it’s all right.”

Peter did, inhaling deeply like Tony had seen him do whenever a situation overwhelmed him. “Please don’t be mad.” He’d said it so quietly, his voice so utterly terrified, that it shut everyone up immediately.

Tony tried to make his own tone cheerful. “I’m not mad! Geez, without you I might’ve broken a bone.”

Peter’s lips twitched. “I doubt that.”

“Yeah, well, I’d be humiliated to have been tackled by a sixteen year old. Now I can at least say I’ve been picked up by Spider-Man.”

Peter opened his mouth to reply, but Clint beat him to it. “The fact that I didn’t get that on camera will be the biggest regret of my life.”

And Bruce, the traitor, said, “Doesn’t FRIDAY record everything?” which of course resulted in everyone forgetting the actual incident and instead focusing on getting Tony to release the footage, which he deleted immediately.

**2.**

The second time, they were more secluded. Meaning, only Ned, May and Happy were there to witness the disaster of it all, and Tony was certain he’d never live it down.

After having inquired about Ned, Tony found himself seeing much more of the guy. Not always on purpose, but Peter had definitely begged Happy to allow Ned to come with once or twice (and never succeeded).

This time they were together quite on accident, a lunatic having struck close enough to Peter’s school that he had to scramble to change. It had lost him precious time, and soon a bunch of kids had been taken hostage, Ned included. Tony barely had time to answer the frantic call before he was off, flying toward Queens as fast as he could. Peter asking for help was rare, so he knew it had to be bad.

And it was. Tony was starting to wonder if the kid’s identity had been discovered, as this was the second time in a few weeks that his area had been attacked badly enough to require more than Spider-Man, but he didn’t have time to ponder. He needed to save half a dozen kids, and then Queens.

By the time they defeated the guy both Ned and Peter were a little shaken up, no matter how much they pretended not to. Tony wasn’t about to whisk them away to the Compound, but he did offer to have Happy drive them both to Peter’s, deciding to join them last minute. Hoping that he could calm May down, who’d left him several voicemails when she’d realized something was happening at the school.

So that was how he ended up sitting in their living room, accepting the cup of tea with the one condition that Peter and Ned had one too. He thought the beverage might do them good.

“It was bizarre, you know?” Ned said for the hundredth time. “One sec I was standing there, the next I was in the air. If I hadn’t been so terrified it might’ve been cool.”

Peter shook his head. “I can bring you with me when I swing around. You don’t have to wait for a villain to literally kidnap you to be in the air.” His voice had a desperate edge to it, as if the daily dangers he faced seemed more real when his best friend was involved.

“If you drop me I’m telling MJ that you have-”

“Oh, hey, hey!” Peter reached out, all panic out of nowhere. “We’re not alone, shut up.”

Ned was laughing, and had the situation been different Tony might’ve pried, but he kept his mouth shut and watched Peter be a teen, sending his friend such an offended look it was almost funny.

May, scrambling for some form of normality (and possibly in order to talk to Tony and Happy alone), told Peter and Ned to go finish their homework. Tony was convinced of their shaken up states when they complied without a word.

“Is someone targeting him?” she asked the moment they were out of the room.

“I don’t know,” Tony said quickly. “I hope not. It might have been a coincidence. The kid isn’t careless by any means.”

“But there could still be a possibility.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes. There could.” Tony licked his lips, trying to keep the part of him that was freaking out in control. “Someone might’ve just noticed how Spider-Man operates around here and decided to lure him in. Fortunately they never managed to get to him, so we don’t know what the actual plan was.”

May shook her head. “Is this the same guy?”

“We didn’t  _fight_ the same guy, but-”

Tony spent twenty agonizing minutes trying to convince both himself and the others that Peter wasn’t in danger, but in the end he wasn’t sure if any of them felt any calmer. All he knew was that he was under no circumstances leaving Peter out of his hypothetical sight from now on.

“Hey, kid, we’re leaving,” he said, knocking on the bedroom door once but doing what every parent or parental figure in existence did and opened the door without waiting for an answer. He kind of deserved what came next.

The first thing he heard was Peter calling out for him, a panic in his voice that made Tony stop in his steps. Next thing he knew the world was just a blur of motions, colors, and whoops he was flying again, right back into the living room where he’d come from.

Blinking in surprise, he became instantly aware of being in Peter’s arms this time, finding him blinking back as if unsure of how they’d gotten here.

“Uh,” Peter said, but Tony beat him to it. “What are you doing?”

“You were about to get a bucket full of ice cold water dumped over you.” It was amazing how monotonous Peter’s voice could sound in the most random situations.

“I was what now?”

“Our homework. It’s to create some sort of trap, and we’ve been going back and forth just trying out those old school ones before coming up with our own. I would’ve disabled it had you actually waited for me before barging in.”

“Sorry,” Tony said, feeling sheepish. “Could you put me down, though? I’ve spent more time in your arms than I should in a month.”

“Oh, right, sorry!”

Peter placed him on the floor, and Tony straightened out his clothes as casually as he could. “Well then. Happy and I are going. I expect a daily update on things around here from now on, you hear me?”

No one was taking him seriously. He could tell. Ned was doing a poor job of concealing his laughter behind Peter, and when he turned to May and Happy he could tell they were about to break into grins any moment now.

Welp. Better leave with at least some shred of dignity.

“Happy, go start the car.”

“I’m on it, boss.”

They all heard him laughing in the hallway. It was gonna be a long car ride.

**3.**

The third time it was only them, hanging out in Tony’s lab like they had for the past few days. It wasn’t that Tony felt safer having Peter in the same room for most of the time (though he did), but Peter had insisted on watching him work on the latest upgrades, which had resulted in Tony actually showing Peter most of what he did in there. He knew he of all people could keep up.

And he kind of liked the continuous praise. Maybe a little bit.

Tony had put Peter to work, giving him a task just hard enough to take time, but easy enough for him to succeed. He’d known the kid to be a bit of a genius from the get go, but working this closely with him had shown him exactly to what extent his skills ran, and he had to admit he felt like a proud parent whenever Peter understood something new or showed any signs of progress.

He was mumbling to himself as he worked, which was kind of endearing. Tony knew he himself talked aloud when he was really in the zone, but Peter’s muttering seemed to be both out of character and scream  _Peter_ with all its might. It was interesting.

“You doing all right there?” he asked when the mumbling had turned to grumbling.

“Yes, I just-” He trailed off, his attention not on Tony for once. Tony bit back a grin when Peter frowned, most likely unaware of it. “What the- oh!” A smile so bright it almost blinded him split Peter’s face, and he dived right back into his work.

Tony found himself watching him for longer than was probably socially acceptable, but there was something about bearing witness to someone being so utterly engrossed in something they were passionate about that felt cathartic. Maybe Tony could understand why Steve had used to love just sitting in here, once.

Apparently he was so focused on the kid that he barely noticed when the thing on the table exploded, only half a second after Peter’s frantic “Shit!”. Tony barely had time to open his mouth, to process several tiny pieces flying in his direction, before he was flying. Seriously, he’d never get used to flying without the suit, but when they landed across the lab, out of reach of the explosion, he wasn’t even surprised to be in Peter’s arms. He wasn’t sure if it was sad that he’d gotten used to it.

“I think I need to change your name on my phone to knight in shining armor,” he deadpanned, and Peter laughed, relieved and shocked at the same time. “Or spider in shining armor. Your web’s gross, by the way.”

“I’m sorry, Mr Stark,” Peter said, putting him down.

“Geez, I was kidding. Not your fault for being part spider.”

“I meant the explosion.”

Tony waved a hand at him. “Having things explode is part of the job. Means you’re pushing the limits. Now.” He clapped his hands together, only partly aware of how being picked up hadn’t made things awkward at all. “Let’s see what went wrong, shall we?”

**And one time Tony returned the favor.**

Tony had picked Peter up several times in the suit. Neither of them had thought much of it, since both spent a lot of time quite literally lifting people out of danger when they were working. Picking Peter up without the suit was a different story, and it quite frankly lacked the hilarity that the reversed situation had brought with it.

It also lacked the action. In fact, Tony hadn’t had this calm of an evening in ages. What had started as an argument about what movie they should watch for the monthly (it was closer to weekly, but no one acknowledged that) movie night with the whole team ended as half of them sleeping through the movie anyway. They’d all had a long week.

Peter was there, snoozing soundly beside him. His head was extremely close to tipping to the side and resting against Tony’s shoulder, but it seemed as if Peter even in sleep kept himself in check lest he wanted to cross any lines. Tony wished he could tell them there weren’t any lines anymore, but he wasn’t sure how to word it.

Since the movie sucked (thanks Thor), the others started leaving one by one, blaming exhaustion. Tony found it fair enough, but since Peter was still sleeping and didn’t seem to be waking up anytime soon, he stayed put, fiddling with his phone for the majority of the night.

The last person to leave was Bruce, who shot them both a look that Tony waved off with his hand. “I’ll deal with it,” he mumbled, and Bruce left, satisfied.

Truth was, Tony had no idea how to deal with it. He wasn’t about to sleep on the couch for Peter’s comfort, and leaving him here alone was a recipe for him freaking out the next day when he’d inevitably wake up to the Avengers walking past him to grab breakfast. Maybe in a year, but Peter was nowhere comfortable enough with them for Tony to allow that to happen.

So he had no choice really.

Heaving himself up carefully, Tony stood and watched the kid for a moment. One of the reasons he kept inviting him to these movies nights was because he knew Peter overworked himself constantly. If not in the streets, then on homework. Frankly put, that kid was probably more exhausted than all of them, sans maybe Tony and Bruce who spent a lot of time in their respective labs when they weren’t saving people.

Peter murmured something in his sleep, but he didn’t seem to be even close to waking up. Tony put his phone in his pocket, turned off the TV, and crouched down to pick Peter up as if he was six rather than sixteen.

“Jesus,” he mumbled, lifting Peter easily. “Don’t they feed you.”

Peter barely stirred, face relaxed enough to tell Tony he was still asleep.

He adjusted his grip as gently as he could, taking his time to put one foot in front of the other and slowly make his way to the elevator. He prayed no one would see them. If not for his sake, then for Peter’s. Lord knew the kid got embarrassed about anything.

When Tony told Happy he’d be setting up a room for Peter, he questioned his motives. At the time Tony hadn’t really expected him to be staying over at all, but knew from experience that you can’t always predict what life would throw at you. Apparently the mere excuse of Peter doing homework and staying for slightly too long was enough for them to force him to stay the night now.

Tony pushed the door open, checking Peter while he had the light from the hallway to make sure he was still out, which quite honestly he didn’t need to do since his body was as slack as ever. He entered the room fully and put Peter down on the bed gently, watching him curl up automatically. He was on top of the covers, but Tony figured he’d be all right.

He slipped out of the room quickly, feeling a weird sense of victory when the door shut behind him.

Had he been more awake himself he might’ve realized he could’ve just woken Peter up to lead him to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://thesoundofnat.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
